David Hockney&s continuing belief in the importance of the portrait & his virtuoso skill in creating a sense of close communication between artist sitter & viewer has resulted in some of the best-loved works of the postwar era From the 1950s on Hockney&s most persistent subject matter in paintings drawings collages & photoworks has been of people usually very close to him as well as of himself These works are narratives of autobiographical relationships they reflect the intimate & often intense stories of this artist&s life They also explore different formal ways of representing the passage of time & at the same time the unavoidable but marvellous stillness of portraits The works include fascinating sequences as he paints his mother or Henry Geldzahler or Celia Birtwell on & off for decades; the special qualities attached to depictions of lovers; & the range of celebrities writers & artists
- Billy Wilder Armistead Maupin WH Auden Henry Moore Christopher Isherwood
- who have been part of a very full life The text by a distinguished European critic & curator reinforces the point that this hugely popular English-born artist who made America his second home has become a figure of worldwide appeal